Every time I arrive at an overcrowded school corridor to sign up for a three-minute parent teacher conference, I have the same thought: There must be a better way.

There are too many names on the sign-up list. The parents are anxious and antsy. It’s always too hot and crowded, and I immediately start feeling sorry for the teachers, besieged by questions.

With one child in middle school and another in high school, I am officially a veteran of New York City public school parent teacher conferences. I’ve developed a few survival strategies.

If possible, I take a personal or vacation day and attend the afternoon session in an effort to avoid ridiculous evening lines.Even so, I can’t beat the system.

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My brother and I are almost fluent in Spanish, which is our second language, largely because our parents both speak fluent Spanish and we have traveled to a lot of Spanish-speaking countries in our lives. Many native English speakers do not have the opportunity to travel and don’t have parents who speak a second language, so they rely on their schools to teach foreign language. That is unfortunate, because in my observation, it is very difficult to reach any real proficiency in a second language from our public school foreign-language curriculum.

As far as I can tell, learning to speak a foreign language is not a serious priority in New York City’s public schools. There is no expectation of fluency, or even mastery. Second language is not taught at all in many elementary schools. At my old middle school, M.S. 51, language classes covered the same things three years in a row. As former M.S. 51 student Abby Beatty said, “In eighth grade I was still learning “¿Quien cocina el taco? Mi mama cocina el taco.” ( Who cooks the taco? My mom cooks the taco.) Many high schools, including my own (LaGuardia), only require one year of language.

The idea that learning another language is not as valuable as doing math or studying history is a bad message to send to kids. Learning to speak another language is beyond valuable, it is essential in a city as diverse as New York, and in a world where students in other countries begin to learn English in grade school. New York leads the world in art, fashion and commerce; why can’t our schools lead the country in foreign language education?

[Editor’s Note: State and city graduation requirements mandate a single year of foreign language instruction in high school, no more.]

Dear Judy,

What is the use of taking an Advanced Regents diploma? Do colleges even know what a Regents exam is? Wouldn’t it be just as well to take the five basic Regents exams and not bother with more? Or not take them at all?

– High school parent

Dear High School Parent:

For a long time, passing Regents exams was not the only way to get a New York State diploma. For many students, demonstrating competency in major subjects meant passing an easier Regents Competency test (known as the RCT). Then politicians began questioning the true value of a New York State high school diploma, and imposed Regents exams on all students to raise the standards. The New York State Education Department also offered an advanced Regents diploma to those students who followed a more rigorous curriculum. Take a look at Insideschools’ basics on diploma requirements for the specifics.

It’s true that Regents exams are unique to New York State, but in response to the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) many states have now established exit exams to set standards for their diplomas. In that sense, New York has a leg up with college admissions officers, who have encountered Regents for a long time. Importantly, even if the colleges do not look at the Regents scores at all, and even if you never take the Regents exams themselves, the course load you take to qualify for an Advanced Regents Diploma includes exactly what college admissions offices look for: challenges and effort beyond the basic standard. Just read what City University says on its website to all its applicants: (more…)

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Today, President Obama will address the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on the topic of education, building a national plan based on Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone ‘cradle to college’ approach.

Obama’s “cradle to career” education agenda is detailed here. While the speech today is not expected to address No Child Left Behind legislation, it will address early childhood efforts, merit pay for teachers, raising academic rigor, financial aid, and the charge, to parents to take responsibility for their children’s education and their own — heard most recently in Obama’s address to Congress .

What have you done to improve your own education? How do you ‘model’ lifelong learning for your children? And are families able to put learning first when they are battling poverty or chronic illness and have meager resources and unstable living conditions? Stimulus money or not, that’s the trillion-dollar question.

Update: See the Times’ quick take on the Obama education speech here; especially illuminating comments amplify and frame the debate.

It’s all on the computer. My homework assignments are posted online, at Classjump. My Spanish teacher doesn’t even mention the homework in class; we simply know to check the website every night. Most of my homework assignments involve either typing documents, doing online research, or both. Though I never expected to say this, I miss sitting at my desk with some just graph paper, a textbook and a pencil to do my math homework.

In a way, it’s beautifully environmental. We are on our way (slowly) to eliminating paper completely from school. A few students are already bringing laptops into class to take notes. Rather than having us print assignments, we can save our homework to the class website where they can check it. And I’m glad teachers are encouraging us to take advantage of the revolutions in technology and information availability that have put all in the information in the world at our fingertips.

But in another way, it’s a little sad. I get home, turn the computer on, and spend the next few hours ignoring the pain in my eyes that comes from spending too much time too close to a screen. In the springtime, when I would normally do all my work in my backyard, I have to come inside every other minute to get on the computer for something. Lately, I’ve come to associate the sound of my monitor shutting off with deep relaxation and the knowledge that I am done for the night. I love computers, and am a true member of my tech-savvy generation, but once in a while, I wouldn’t mind trading the clickety-clack of my keyboard for the scratch of my pen on paper.

I have an 8 year old daughter who is in the top class; however the teacher told me that she is not interested in reading, writing and math, and is only interested in being social with the other children. She suggested I give her incentives. Can you give me some ideas to motivate my child to like reading, math and writing?

Puzzled Mom

Dear Puzzled Mom,

Do you know why she lost interest in her studies? Is she concentrating on friendships because she feels insecure and has to work hard to make and keep friends? Does she have a chance to see her friends after school or on weekends? You can help boost her self confidence by arranging playdates with friends. Is the work too difficult? If so, ask the teacher to schedule extra help or tutoring for her. Or, is she bored because the work is dull? If that’s the case, here are some ideas on how to keep her interested.

Introduce her to fun series books such as Ramona by Beverly Cleary, Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgrin, Encyclopedia Brown by Donald Sobol, or Magic Treehouse by Mary Pope Osborne. Good books are great motivators. Teachers may see these books as too easy, but they usually have kids clamoring for more. Once she is hooked on a series, the next title could be a reward for reading what the teacher assigns. Tapes and movies of these books in combination with the published versions make stories come alive. Take the time to read, watch, or listen with her. You can find plenty of other appealing books at the public library. Ask a librarian to help find those that are geared to her interests.

Encourage your daughter to write to grandparents, aunts and uncles, or neighbors who all welcome mail from kids. She can start with e-mail, and if she gets a correspondence going, she can move on to cards for special occasions and then longer letters. Writing in a diary is also fun, made even more appealing if you give her a special notebook with a pretty cover. She can write privately after she does the required school journal writing. Or, you and your daughter can read poetry and write poems together. Your participation is really important!

If you or other family members are good at math, share fun problems and puzzles. Some kids like to do arithmetic in workbooks at home. Others respond to just fooling around with a calculator or using it to solve problems that come up in shopping, like figuring out which box of raisins is the best buy or making change.

With the teacher’s cooperation, (she’ll report to you the good behavior days) your daughter can have a notebook full of stickers - one for each time she pays attention in school and does her homework willingly. When the agreed upon number is reached, you’ll reward her with something you both agree upon: Some small change? A toy she’s been yearning for? A special treat?

And, if you’d like to hear an expert speak on the topic of motivation, consider going to a talk by Rick Lavoie, author of “The Motivation Breakthrough: 6 Secrets to Turning on the Tuned-Out Child”. He will be speaking in Brooklyn on Feb. 11. See our calendar for details about this free event..

Good luck and have fun.

Judy

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Brooks was in the bathtub last week, and here’s what I overheard: “You don’t have to be worried, cow. Your friends are here. Look: pig is here, horse is here, duck is here. If you cry, someone will give you hug. See? Horse wants to give you a hug. Mmmmm. There. Don’t you feel better?”

In the old days, presented with a set of animal bath toys, Brooks would repetitively pour water over them.

Not only is Brooks finally delving into imaginary play, he’s showing me what a warm and nurturing place his kindergarten classroom is. Of course, this confirms what we already knew from meetings with the teachers and therapists, and it is also firmly on display whenever I pick him up or drop him off. I love watching Brooks experience such tender interactions with his new grown-up friends. Although it wouldn’t be fair to credit the school alone with this developmental leap in imaginary play (we’ve been working on it since Brooks was 18-months-old), the program is certainly living up to our expectations. For example:

Brooks came home last week with a worksheet entitled “People like it when I say hi!” with hand-drawn pictures of mom, a bus driver, a hallway, and someone new. This apparently simple worksheet not only encompasses the social greeting component, but also fine-motor drawing skills, and reading practice. I think it’s emblematic of the efficiency of their multi-disciplinary approach. (It’s also nice to see that Brooks is finally drawing stick figures with legs that don’t come out of their heads.)

Any concerns that we had back in September about a small, potentially restrictive self-contained special ed class have pretty much melted away. Brooks is making regular short visits to the integrated Nest class these days, and if he continues to progress, he may move into the integrated model next year. We also worried that all this concentration on social issues might shortchange academics; no more. Many weekend mornings, he sits at the computer and Googles “dvd,” “toys,” “max and ruby,” clicks on the search results, and calls me over: “Look, Mommy. I added something to the cart!” He once got to a Craig’s List ad for a new car (maybe from a search on the movie “Cars”?). Once he figures out credit card numbers, we’re in trouble. In the meantime, he’s doing just fine.

The teaching units in the classroom are chosen as carefully as everything else, and the current one encompasses “dealing with change,” a big challenge for Brooks and his five classmates. In an attempt to put at least a dent into their over-reliance on schedules and routines, these kids are learning that’s it’s okay to “switch things up.” As a part of that, his teachers are trying to encourage Brooks to take more risks, instead of responding with his usual automatic “no” when asked to participate in certain classroom activities.

Last week, Brooks told me I should come to school because “it’s fun and they have centers and snack.” So I told him that I didn’t think they would let me come to school, because I’m a grown-up, and he paused and said: “Mommy, you need to take a chance!”

Author’s Note: I learned recently that the Intensive K program that Brooks attends is not technically part of the ASD Nest program, although it does feed into it. It is separately funded. I apologize for any confusion.

Public charter schools straddle an uncertain divide — with public money, they often serve targeted constituencies, from the consistently underserved to families looking for cultural connection and context. What the charters characterize as focus — on a particular community, ideal of academic achievement, or on intellectual discipline — critics see as exclusionary and discriminatory, and counter to the melting-pot theory of public education.

In a weekend Valentine to culture-based charter education in Minnesota, Sara Rimer of the Times celebrates the ability of these specialized schools to serve the ethnic minorities whose children make up the student body. All well and good, says Rimer, as kids new to the U.S. gain in academics but keep a foundation in their home culture. But what’s good for the country often doesn’t square up as positive in New York City. Witness the firestorm over Khalil Gibran International Academy – the city’s first Arabic-language public school, which was forced out of its original placement, lost its founding principal and is scrambling now to gain a foothold in a remote location, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. To describe the public response to KGIA as oppositional is to understate the force of gravity: Despite the presence of dozens of language-based city schools, this one inflamed the barely dormant spark of discrimination and anti-Muslim sentiment.

In today’s Times, Elissa Gootman describes a new proposal for a Hebrew-language charter school, backed by financier Michael Steinhardt (among others) and the project of Steinhardt’s daughter Sara Berman. Planned for the Midwood-Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, great pains have been taken to separate the school’s Hebrew studies — language, culture, history, music, and arts — from any formal religious instruction. Students of all races and ethnicities will be eligible to apply, if the proposal is approved this week by the New York State Regents. But the students that choose to attend the school may or may not reflect the surrounding, racially diverse community.

While some of the loudest KGIA naysayers are now silent, many critics question the charter school’s ability to offer values-neutral instruction. But the proposal, from Gootman’s report, seems rock-solid, and the school may well go forward.

The counterpoint of both stories leads to three big questions: First, why is it good for schools in the heartland to inculcate particular cultures, and not good in New York? And second, does a school that’s highly focused on a language or a culture contradict a bedrock principle of public education — to bring youngsters into the American culture even as they learn to read, write, and think? Can public schools do both, serve specific constituencies and serve the greater good?

Imminent budget cuts to the city’s schools will hamstring some programs, and simply erase others, like after-school activities and non-academic enrichments, depending on how individual principals parse out the cuts. But even in this arid economic climate, creative New York City teachers find ways to make less into much, much more — provided they have the institutional support to think outside the ‘box’ of convention, and access to resources to help them realize their plans.

Take, for example, Jon Goldman’s four English classes and 14-student advisory at Beacon High School in Manhattan. Goldman, a Shakespeare maven and fencing aficionado, developed an unusual classroom experiment, which launched with Principal Ruth Lacey’s okay in September.

The theory is simple: A ‘green’ classroom, where all work is accomplished online, on screen, and entirely without paper, thanks to a powerful, portable school computer, a SmartBoard, wireless access, inexpensive flash drives for students to ‘carry’ assignments and projects back and forth, and a staggeringly tech-literate student body (only one of Goldman’s 139 students this year lacked computer access at home; another who had a computer but no internet found ample ‘net resources at school, in libraries and internet cafes, and at the homes of relatives and friends). Books, readings, and other classroom materials are provided on line and via the school’s internet portal; so far, essays, tests, and homework have been assigned and returned electronically.

So far, Goldman’s noted a more interactive, engaged classroom experience. Kids are doing as well or better without paper, he says, even with the challenges of glitch-fixing. And in a note to Insideschools, he added, “I’ve not used a single handout or xeroxed paper, or printed anything out other than college recommendations that had to be submitted in hard copy.” No copies, no printouts, no paper, no waste: It’s hard to imagine, for any parent who’s rummaged through the crumbly recesses of their kid’s backpack searching for a trip-permission slip — or a progress report. From multiple sets of 75-page reading packets to 250-page novels, everything that was on paper in 2007-08 is on the screen in 2008-09. Goldman was assigned a ream of copy paper in September — recently noted as a hot commodity – and estimates he’s used fewer than 100 sheets, largely for college recommendations and, as required by Beacon procedure, for attendance reports.

Goldman’s solution may not work as easily in schools that aren’t as tech-steeped as Beacon, which began its life as an outgrowth of the Computer School, and which serves a predominantly middle-class student body The flash drives cost about $10 — less than a movie ticket and a Coke — with subsidies available for students who need them. Notably, Goldman (whose wife works for Advocates for Children, Insideschools’ parent organization) turned to Teacher’s Choice and to generous parents to fund his proposal, which he estimates has saved “tens of thousands of sheets of paper, and thousands of dollars” since its inception.

It seems probable that, in this vast city, other teachers are taking new angles on using classroom resources. If you know someone who’s saving money, saving trees, saving stress, or saving time by creative classroom strategies, let us know. (With critical mass, the discussion can move to Insideschools’ forums, for ongoing dialog and inspiration.)

While the economic and policy debates swirl like the eddying snow — and school cuts loom on the near horizon — the Times today showcases a teacher of English, part of the Teach for America corps. It’s a warm and flattering profile, but the most pressing question isn’t posed: It’s not clear whether Ms. Grant will continue to work as a teacher or move on to achieve other career goals after her TFA stint ends– a widespread objection voiced by education researchers and plenty of principals, too, that the well-intentioned program recruits young talent, sponsors their certification (and their Masters degrees) and then, loses the new teachers’ skills to career pursuits beyond the schoolhouse door. New York magazine offers its own gallery of classroom leaders, whose after-school activities include break-dancing, standup comedy and a glam rock tribute band.

Let no one doubt the diversity of the adults who teach our children, or the myriad contributions these creative, multitalented professionals bring to school each and every day.

Some semi-heartening news this week: American students seem to be improving in math, according to the world’s largest survey of math and science achievement, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (Timss). Since the 1990s, Asian countries like Singapore and Japan, have dominated international reviews of math and science skills, which can predict a nation’s future economic and scientific health. But despite noticeable improvements in American math scores this year (U.S. 4th graders outscored 23 other countries and tied with students from the Netherlands, Lithuania, Germany and Denmark), the same 4th grade mathematicians lagged behind students from Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Kazakhstan, Russia, England and Latvia. And American science performance continues flat, with no improvements since the survey was last published four years ago. Science teachers are unsurprised: No Child Left Behind and local policies emphasize math and English performance, leading to diminishing classroom hours devoted to other subjects. In conversations about school performance in the city, science is rarely mentioned.

The Timss survey took a focused look at how 4th and 8th graders in two American states compared to their international peers. Students from Massachusetts and Minnesota outscored students from almost every other nation on both the science and math assessments, which officials from each state attributed to their respective education reform efforts. But while only students from Singapore and Taiwan topped students from Massachusetts in 8th grade science, the Timss study doesn’t uncover the nuances behind the numbers, like how particular schools, neighborhood, or demographics performed. Researchers from Massachusetts and New York’s own Eduwonkette are careful to remind that achievement gaps still persist, even within the high achieving super-states. Deeper analysis of these results will help drive substantiative conversations on curriculum emphasis, educational values, and performance.

Last week, a woman posted a comment on this blog asking us to “move beyond descriptive stats [on the achievement gap] and focus on what makes some kids resilient (both in public and independent/parochial schools) where others fail.” She said that although she had been raised by a single parent in Harlem public housing, she had “beat the odds” and she wanted to know “how can we make our schools, families and communities stronger!”

Her question is a perfect springboard into the first Insideschools’ book club choice, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America, by Paul Tough. During the next two weeks, we encourage you to read the book, and send in your questions and comments. Then, we’ll interview the author, interspersing our questions with yours. You can find the book in your local library or buy it through our website, where some of the profits will be donated to Insideschools.

Paul Tough, who writes about education for the New York Times Magazine, tackles hefty social science quandaries – like what causes poverty and how it can be alleviated — within the narrative of Geoffrey Canada’s dramatic, ongoing struggle to change the lives of Harlem’s children. Canada, who grew up in the South Bronx, has devoted his professional life to figuring out how to tackle poverty by transforming a neighborhood rather than “saving” a few individuals. Canada’s solution, which has been endorsed by President-elect Barack Obama, is to create what he describes as a “conveyor belt” of interrelated programs and services to carry as many children as possible from conception to college, “contaminating” an entire neighborhood with a higher set of expectations.

After five years of reporting, Tough describes Canada’s venture – the Harlem Children’s Zone – through the stories of the people who work for and are served by the project, which includes two charter schools. Tough also explains the research behind anti-poverty efforts, relating it to the sometimes nail-biting, sometimes heartbreaking, yet surprisingly hopeful story of Canada’s work.

For more information about the book, the author, and the Harlem Children’s Zone, read the New York Times review, the Washington Post Review, visit their website, and look on our facebook page.

Read the book, and join the discussion! And remember to email me your questions for Paul Tough or post them here on the blog.

At the NYC Student Union meeting today we discussed the somewhat obvious connection that education has with race, income and neighborhood. We talked about the way people are born onto education ‘tracks’ that are extremely difficult to change. We also found that the system works both ways.

Because I live in Park Slope and went to PS 321, I ended up at MS 51, Lab, and am now at LaGuardia. This succesion of good schools was expected of me– and I was kept well informed of these good options, all the time. Then, there’s the other side. Students who have never heard of specialized high schools because no one imagines that they would go there. And because they are not really prepared, they receive poor 7th grade test scores which then follow them and limit them, making it very difficult to get into these good schools.

We all know that living in a good neighborhood doesn’t make me smarter than anyone else. But it does give me the resources I need to have the highest level of education possible. As a small, relatively uncredible all-student union, we realize that it’s going to be close to impossible for us to do anything about this established norm. Instead, we’re launching a project where we’ll try to get into 7th grade classrooms around the city, especially in lower-income neighborhoods where expectations for students might be lower. We’ll explain to students how to apply to high schools, make sure students know about all the high schools, and offer tutoring for the 7th grade standardized test. Hopefully we can take this small step toward equal acess to quality education. As NYSCU member Hasanur put it, “We can’t get 1,000 kids to change their education paths. But if we can affect the lives of 10 students, we’ve made a difference.”

It’s axiomatic that steady attendance promotes steady learning: The more you show up, the more you learn. But attendance is more than a simple (if vital) predictor of learning, according to a new report from the Center for New York City Affairs/Milano-The New School for Management and Urban Policy.

“Problems at schools overlap directly with problems at home,” says Center director Andrew White. School attendance reflects a community’s physical and mental health and its commitment to education as a basic value. Chronic absence, endemic across the city’s schools and highest in high-need communities, is a reliable predictor of future academic failure: If students don’t learn the basics they need by third grade, school becomes a dispiriting game of catch-up. Absence can also be a marker for potential abuse or neglect. How effectively a community is knit into the life of the school is a critical factor in increasing attendance, according to the report, and strongly influences the engagement, health, and eventual achievement of the children it serves.

More than 90,000 elementary school children, or 20% of the K-5 total, missed at least 20 days of school last year, according to the Center’s analysis of DOE statistics. The highest levels of chronic absence are seen in the poorest districts; causes range from health issues (like uncontrolled asthma and other childhood illnesses) and family challenges (mental health, economics, language differences, mobility, and relocation) to extended vacations and a lack of emphasis, in some communities, on the value of early childhood education.

The report recognizes steady progress in attendance but challenges DOE structures to continue to strengthen attendance oversight — by increasing its importance in calculating Annual Progress Reports, reshaping the responsibilities of overburdened attendance teachers, developing “community schools” — open 6 or 7 days a week, with a spectrum of social, medical, after-school and tutoring services, and targeting the 50 or 100 schools most burdened by chronic absenteeism.

There’s ample controversy as to whether NCLB strictures–which mandate robust testing–undermine kids’ engagement at school by limiting ‘fun’ classes like music and art in favor of testable academics. Ed wonks can thrash out the relative virtues of a Broader, Bolder Approach or Education Equality. What’s beyond argument is the integrity of the basic premise — attendance matters, and embedding the school into the lives of the families and children it serves strengthens the school and the community, even as it supports consistent academic gains.

For a much more detailed discussion of the issue and potential solutions, along with eye-opening graphics, see the complete report, edited by Insideschools’ co-founder Clara Hemphill.

Many critics and even more parents have criticized the lack of focus on education in the presidential debates. Tonight at 7 pm, representatives from the McCain and Obama campaigns will debate each candidate’s education policy in a forum at Teachers College. While the actual event is sold out, the debate will be on line live, via webcast; register here ahead of the event.

Last year, I fell in love with Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. I was deeply moved by the language, the story, the vividness and the warmth of the characters. But it wasn’t my first time reading it. It was assigned reading in sixth grade, and I found it difficult. Rereading it in 10th grade, I wondered why I hadn’t appreciated the story before. But the answer was obvious to me: I had just been too young.

I believe there are best times to read certain books. Just because you can read a book, doesn’t mean you should. Books can be understood on many levels, but great classics deserve deep appreciation. Sixth graders can read Huckleberry Finn, Little Women and Of Mice and Men and “get” it, but these are great books we’re talking about. Books that should be cherished. Over and over again, my middle-school classmates and I complained about the dullness of supposed “classics,” wondering why on earth our teachers, parents and grandparents exclaimed fervently over them. In fact, my grade in seventh grade English dropped 6 points because I failed the Huckleberry Finn pop quiz: I couldn’t bring myself to read another page. Five years later, I adored it.

Beth Handman, assistant principal of elementary school P.S.321 in Brooklyn says, “I hate to see the best books in the world go to waste. When I see my favorite series, like the Narnia series, in the hands of a first-grader I cringe. That same first-grader will read it in first grade and say ‘Oh! Aslan is a lion!’ That really happened, you know’.”

What’s the rush to shove these books on young kids? Are schools trying to prove that they’re more sophisticated by assigning more sophisticated books to students? Just wait a couple of years… Please! It will make all the difference.

The Broad (rhymes with load) Prize was awarded yesterday in a jubilant ceremony in midtown Manhattan, with remarks by Chancellor Klein and a “celebratory luncheon” that featured newsman Tom Brokaw. The Prize, which carries $2 million in scholarship money for the five urban school districts short-listed to win, was awarded to New York City’s schools last year. This year, the big, million-dollar prize went to Brownsville, Texas; the other four finalists were each awarded a quarter-million in scholarship funds. (For the moment, set aside the fact that four years’ tuition at a private college or university runs above $100,000 per student, making those juicy, round numbers look quite a bit leaner.)

In an extreme example of glass half empty/glass half full vision, the Broad judges recognized Brownsville’s progress and academic gains, especially among students of color, English language learners, and kids whose families don’t have much money. Glass half full, right? Yet the Brownsville schools haven’t met their handy-dandy AYP targets, as articulated in NCLB, for the past two years. (Looking a little empty now, no?)

So the richest education purse in the country goes, with great fanfare, to a potentially failing school, as defined by Federal law. How can the “best” urban school district in the country fail to measure up on NCLB? What does it say about what NCLB measures (and values) and what actually works for children? As parents, and as voters, who do we trust — the Feds? the funders? Congress? the DOE? — to do the best for our kids?

The Post has two school-tech pieces today, including one optimistic feature on the new, affordable XOXO laptops (and the DOE plan to give families 24/7 internet access in the bargain). On the flip side, the paper reports the wide spread and increasingly frequent thefts of school laptops, including plenty of higher-priced Dell and Mac machines.

The XOXO machines, created at MIT for children in developing nations, are sturdy enough to survive being stuffed into a backpack. But the cyber-bandits in question aren’t that subtle; school security videos shows some brazen thieves wheeling entire laptop carts — yes, those bulky, unwieldy, locked metal cabinets that hold a couple of dozen computers — right out the schoolhouse doors.

Toni Bruno is a sax-playing junior at LaGuardia High School and member of the New York City Student Union; we’re pleased and proud to welcome her regular contributions to Insideschools’ blog this year.

This past Saturday, I had one of the most interesting and educational experiences of my life canvassing for Barack Obama with my parents . Spending the day involved in the political process in Pennsylvania made me think that high schools should be focusing on our two candidates in the months leading up to this pivotal election. I can’t think of anything more valuable to teach teenagers, who will be voting in the next election, then involvement and awareness during election years.

In my former elementary school, P.S.321, fourth and fifth graders are currently involved in an intensive election study. Every four years, teachers take two months out from Revolutionary War/Civil War curriculum in order to get the kids to understand our country’s political systems. The students run as candidates, choosing vice-presidents and discussing practical solutions to their own school problems.

If elementary school students can have such inspiring yet informative political educations, I can only imagine the ways in which a high school faculty could involve their students in the elections. For the first time in my life, my peers and I are really following and caring about our future president. But I notice that whenever our class discussions move in a potentially heated political direction, teachers flash the lights to calm things down, and remind us of our aim for the day (what cash crop saved Jamestown during the early Colonial period of American History?).

I would like to encourage high school staff members to embrace the interest that their students are taking in the coming elections. Encourage discussion and most of all activism. What more could you want to teach your students than citizenship and political involvement at crucial moments in history?

P.S. Obama ‘08!!!! (in case you hadn’t guessed).

Talk of testing dominated the news this week. Whether it was the mayor’s new plan to test kindergarten, first, and second grade students or the results of the SAT exam, the testing debates continued to take up ink. New York students’ comparatively poor performance on the SAT prompted both the Post and the Sun to question the validity of rising state test results. NPR had a different angle on the story - they featured a public school that churned out students with perfect SAT scores. Some New York teachers, meanwhile, are about to benefit from the higher state test scores when they receive their first bonuses, and certain teachers are going to be paid more than others.

While many kindergarteners in New York will start taking tests, the Times reports that the decade-old promise of universal pre-k is far from being realized. Education may be falling off the docket in general, warns the head of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Our chancellor, however, is keeping education in the local news, and this week, he talked to some budding young reporters.

Once-anonymous education blogger Eduwonkette unveiled herself dramatically, via a profile in New York Magazine. But a whole different kind of concealment is happening in a small Texas town, where teachers came to school this year with concealed guns. And the whistle-blowing Post exposed illegal activity and ethics violations all over the school system .

Low performing middle schools will get another burst of attention and funds after last year’s influx of cash seemed to boost test scores in the most of the targeted schools. Cash has also been spent on 18 new school buildings opening next week, although the Mayor says he’s lowered construction costs. And 10 city elementary schools are going to try out the Core Knowledge literacy curriculum - a content-based program that represents a departure from Bloomberg’s Balanced Literacy program.

It’s Friday, which, according to way too many city students, is apparently the day of the week to play hooky! Most of the little truants probably don’t have parents who are as on-top of their education as these parents claim to be. Involved parents or not, every student could benefit from a better physical education program, read more the Riverdale Press.

Enjoy the long weekend and don’t forget to pack backpacks and sharpen pencils, it’s almost school time.

Today’s Times highlights a National Science Foundation study on gender differences in math – and despite the diatribes of Ivy-bound thinkers like Dr Lawrence Summers, the news is good: A review of 7,000,000 students in 10 states shows no gender split in math achievement scores.

In a related report on NPR, high school teachers say that their advanced-math classes enroll about 50:50 girls and boys, a sea change from a generation ago. But one math-loving girl put a real-world perspective on the study’s findings: Patricia Li, a San Jose, CA, high-school senior summering at MIT, says it’s not that more boys like math than girls — more like, everyone dislikes math in equal measure, which is its own kind of progress.

See the article in Science magazine for all the number-crunching, math-laden details.

Hate to disturb the day of rest with this tiny AP item buried in Saturday’s Times, but making the Bible a legally sanctioned part of the high-school curriculum in a state as vast as Texas is too unnerving to ignore.

Texas is among the nation’s largest consumers (and commissioners) of textbooks; it’s Econ 101 that many publishers develop books to Texas standards and then distribute to schools in states nationwide. So who knows what these Bible-study seeds might sow — or where.

And take a look at the last sentence, citing teachers generally unfamiliar with the separation of church and state. How about church and schoolhouse door?

If so, you might want to visit the website of Onderwijs Consumentem Organisatie, or the Education Consumers’ Organization of Amsterdam. Schools are very different in the Netherlands — there, the government supports private and parochial schools — but parents aren’t. There, just as they do here, parents want to find the best schools for their children and help make those schools excellent. For the last two years, representatives of OCO have visited Insideschools to share their experiences running a similar organization, and this year, the two sites created a formal relationship that has been recognized by Amsterdam’s alderman for education. (That’s Insideschools director Pam Wheaton signing on as a partner with OCO’s Han van Gelder in the picture above.) We’ve already gotten several good ideas from the folks at OCO — but we probably won’t be buying Insideschools-branded bikes to ride to school visits!

At about half of all city high schools, the only foreign language offered is Spanish, creating a challenge when, as is often the case, many students are already fluent Spanish speakers, according to a new article in City Limits.

What do high schools do with those students? “The schools design classes in Spanish for Spanish speakers,” says Maria Santos, chief of the DOE’s Office of English Language Learners and Foreign Languages, in the article. “They focus on developing more of their literacy in Spanish.” Sounds like a great plan — but the article’s author didn’t speak to any students, so I’m left wondering whether this is true. Many of the high schools I’ve visited take advantage of native Spanish speakers’ language proficiency to let them place out of fulfilling the state’s one-year foreign language requirement, and then fill their schedules with more English and math class time. I’d be willing to bet that this happens even in many of the high schools that offer instruction in French, Italian, Russian, and other languages. And that’s a far cry from taking AP Spanish literature classes.

Earlier this week, a blogger at The Chancellor’s New Clothes took aim at Credit Recovery classes, where students who have failed classes can “recover” those credits by completing makeup assignments over the course of a few days. The teacher writes:

[Students] are earning credit in a course that they failed because they deserved to fail. And they will be making it up in 9 hours.So what are we telling our students? What are we telling those students who decide that coming to class or doing work is not important? What are we telling those students who work hard every day for their grades and their credit?

It looks like this teacher is not alone in asking these questions. In today’s Times, Elissa Gootman and Sharona Coutts write that educators citywide are concerned about the Credit Recovery option and that the State Education Department is investigating whether the short classes are in fact legal, since “seat time” is one criterion it sets, along with subject mastery, for earning credits.

Gootman and Coutts collected anecdotes and evidence of Credit Recovery classes from dozens of schools around the city. At Wadleigh in Harlem, a student who had to write three essays to get credit for a course he rarely attended said, “I’m grateful for it, but it also just seems kind of, you know, outrageous. … There’s no way three essays can possibly cover a semester of work.” At Franklin K. Lane in Brooklyn, posters advertised, “If you failed a class, don’t despair … turnaround your 55 into a 65 in 6 weeks!!! Ask your teacher for details!!!”

Klein is on the defensive in the article, saying that these anecdotes (plus others) don’t add up to cause for concern that the city is juking its graduation statistics. He says there is “no basis to suggest that improper credit recovery has affected graduation rates” — the DOE doesn’t keep statistics on the subject.

What of the Wadleigh principal who allowed the farcical classes and whose Credit Recovery guidelines are now the subject of state investigation? She’s the city’s first executive principal, given the reins of a troubled high school in February along with a $25,000 bonus for taking on the assignment. She told the Times the Credit Recovery work packets were “just as rigorous as courses they would have taken sitting in the classroom every day with a teacher, or even more rigorous.” Sounds like Wadleigh is truly a model for other high schools around the city, right? And could the DOE really not find anyone for the executive principal position who wasn’t under investigation for promoting rules that skirted state law?

I have visited lots of schools and I think there are good things happening in many of the city’s high schools. But when I read an article like this one, I wonder whether all of Joel Klein’s reforms are only building a house of cards.

With no funding for tutoring and after school programs for the rest of the year, some schools must be turning to free labor to provide those important services. I just heard that Learning Leaders, the half-century-old organization that places trained volunteers in schools, is urgently seeking volunteers for the rest of this year, especially those who can work one-on-one with high school students or offer math tutoring. If you’re interested in becoming a Learning Leader, contact Heather Whyte at 212-213-3370 x337.

Hey everyone! It’s been quite some time since I last blogged, mainly because all has been quiet on the high school frontier for a while now. I am currently waiting for the results of the specialized high school exam, which are due back next week (somewhere around Feb. 6), to tell me whether or not I made it into my first-choice specialized high school.

At the same time that I’m pretty jazzed about those results, I’m also anticipating the results of my application to non-specialized high schools. At this point, I will, quite frankly, be happy no matter where I get in. I have confidence that I made it into the small school in my neighborhood, and my excitement concerning acceptance to that school has only risen since I finally decided to put it first. Although I’ve heard rumors that it will be backbreakingly fast-paced, I’ve also heard wonderful things about the rich curriculum and able staff.

My one concern is that, if I do somehow make it into both the specialized high school and the regular school, which will I choose? Both schools are overachieving and will undoubtedly get me many places in my future career as a student, but I would have to make certain sacrifices in order to succeed in both places. One will allow for shorter travel time, but more club participation; the other, immense travel time, but possibly less competition among the student body. Only the test results (and some good thinking time!) will tell.

The DOE makes a lot of noise when it rolls out a new initiative but it does a good job of staying quiet when it scales them back. The Post reported this past weekend that the science test planned for grades 3 and 6 will not be offered this year after all, at least not for the vast majority of middle and high schools. And science proficiency won’t be a consideration in promotion decisions as the DOE last year suggested it would be. According to the Post, the DOE now plans to start testing all students in science next year.

What’s the reason for the delay? Apparently, the DOE found it didn’t have time to train teachers adequately in the new citywide science curriculum; the Post has quotes from a couple of anonymous teachers who report having “boxes of junk” in their classrooms but no idea how to use their contents. The DOE also says it needs further field testing to devise a fair test.

Inadequate training for teachers and a flawed test sound like good arguments for slowing down implementation of the science test schedule. I’m just surprised that the DOE listened to those arguments after rolling out initiatives far more half-baked than this one. And for those who saw the science test as a sign that the DOE would no longer tolerate schools spending all of their instructional time working on skills tested on the math and English state tests, the delay is certainly disappointing. Let’s hope that schools haven’t been trained too well on teaching only to tests and still make use of the new science curriculum.

More details are emerging on the mayor’s new plan to “end social promotion” in 8th grade. According to the New York Times, the 8th grade rules are “stricter” than those already in place in grades 3, 5, and 7 because students will have to pass all of their core subjects as well as score a 2 or higher on state tests. Last year, the Times reports, about a quarter of 8th graders failed to meet these standards.

No one’s suggesting that a quarter of 8th graders will really have to stay in middle school, but as I noted yesterday, summer schools are sure to expand in 2009, when the first set of kids affected by the new policy finishes 8th grade. The Daily News notes that Chancellor Klein plans to head off “mass flunkings” by putting in place stronger intervention strategies earlier in middle school but without new funds to support those strategies, it’s not clear how schools with lots of struggling students will be able to offer intensive support to their weakest students and at the same time scale up their advanced offerings, as a policy announced last summer is requiring them to do.

Advocates for Children Director Kim Sweet told the Daily News, “We’re very concerned that kids are being stuck in the eighth grade who can’t meet the requirements to graduate currently and are already over-age and unable to get into high school.” The new policy could exacerbate that problem.

Fortunately, the Times has some small consolation for advocates and over-age kids, noting, “Officials said it was unlikely that eighth graders who had already been held back twice would be retained a third time.”

What is our role, the students’ role, in our society?

As it stands now we are the constant object of the education discussion sentence. My English teacher told me (and mind you, this was last year… in my junior year of high school) that a simple sentence contains three parts: the subject or actor, the verb or action, and the object or that which is acted upon.

As in: “The Department of Education (that’s the subject) puts (the verb) children (the object) first (I guess that’s an adjective).”

In the American education debate, we are acted upon by many subjects: The Department of Education, which treats us like products, numbers that need to be manipulated so that it can look good; the city, which treats us as criminals who need to be babysat by the NYPD for a couple of hours a day; and our teachers, whom people assume can snap their fingers and turn us into brilliant astrophysicists ready to herald in a new age of American economic glory.

In debates about the issues, class size for example, we always hear about how current conditions make teaching impossible. What about learning? Do you think it’s any easier to learn in a class of 34 than it is to teach? Since when has learning become a passive action? Just because it contains no plosive sounds and seems to flow off the tongue a bit easier doesn’t mean it’s any smoother of a process. Learning is not an exact science. It takes hard work, intense concentration and in today’s schools, quite a bit of luck.

If our education systems are truly trying to put “Children First,” then it is time for us to become the subject of our education. People like Joel Klein need to stop asking, “Are our teachers teaching?” and instead ask, in the words of the Bard, “Is our children learning?”

To refocus this picture, we students need to take a more active role in our schools. That is the key mission of the New York City Student Union, a citywide, student-founded, student-run organization. Since its creation in 2006, the union’s goals have been to act as a powerful collective voice for New York City’s students, to give students a say in the decisions made about them, and to provide communication between students from all over the City.

Each Monday, these students from small schools, impact schools, specialized schools and others, meet to examine the problems in our city’s schools and come up with student-generated solutions to them. For example, we’ve advocated the need for smaller classes to the governor and other state officials. We testified before the New York City Council against the cell phone ban, and most recently we’ve lobbied the Department of Education on improving its new progress reports and student surveys.

Additionally we work on student empowerment projects such as our Student Government Project, in which we are researching the state of student governments around the city and look to develop an effective student government model so that students can have a greater say in their individual schools, and the NYC Students Blog, the first-ever student-run blog about the NYC education system, which features the voices of seven student bloggers, representing every borough, giving their take on education issues.

I believe that the only way to make students the subject of the education debate is for us to take a more active role in larger education politics and the goings on of our own schools. We must remember that we are the learners. That is an honorable position to be in. We are not products or tools or criminals. We are potential incarnate.

Cross-posted on the NYC Students Blog

Many of us know that kids with limited English proficiency have limited high school options. But it’s a lot easier to understand what that means to immigrant kids and their families after reading Jessica Siegel’s article about Ralph Antony Toussaint, who arrived from Haiti in August at age 16, in the Village Voice’s education supplement this week.

For weeks this past fall, Ralph Antony and various members of his family ping-ponged around Brooklyn, encountering obstacles at the enrollment center and finding that several schools suggested by the DOE were too crowded to take another student or lacked the special English language instruction that a new immigrant would need. Eventually, it took the help of an advocate to get Ralph Antony admitted into overcrowded Clara Barton High School, which has a Haitian Creole dual language program.

No one should have to spend five weeks finding a high school, but at least Ralph Antony finally landed in a school that was right for him. A DOE spokesperson told the Voice, “If a school is sent a student from the enrollment center, the school should take him or her.” But several of the small high schools to which the enrollment office directed the family rejected Ralph Antony because they couldn’t provide him the services he needed. Last year, Advocates for Children Director Kim Sweet explained to the Citywide Council on High Schools that the DOE requires kids with special needs to go through the regular high school admissions process without having any assurance that their match will have the services they need. The DOE’s thinking in this situation appears to be similar, and kids who need English language services lose out.

(Incidentally, I know that I read this article last fall I read an article on the Voice’s website and for a while I tried to find it again to link to it, but it was gone. I guess holding articles for six months is one way New Times is cutting the Voice’s costs. It’s too bad, because articles like this one deserve to be seen.)

This letter, signed by Dana O’Brien, was published last week in the New York Times.

As a public school student myself, as well as on behalf of the New York City Student Union, I would like to commend Assemblyman Mark Weprin on his public statement on the overemphasis on high-stakes testing in New York City public education.

While there are still many great teachers in this city who are working hard to foster critical thinking, creativity, imagination and all of the qualities that make a truly educated person, their efforts are often squelched by Department of Education policies and curriculums that value uniformity and accountability over teaching and learning.

While we at the Student Union recognize and appreciate the need for accountability in such a large system, we believe that a degree of flexibility and subjectivity is necessary in evaluating schools and students. We are working with Chancellor Joel I. Klein’s staff on improving aspects of the school report card system, but there is still much to be done.

Prospective and current middle school parents might want to question math curriculums more aggressively. What topics are covered and what kind of background and training does your child’s math teacher have?

Chances are the answer to both questions could be not enough.

A new study, Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century,’’ by Michigan State University researcher and Professor William H. Schmidt, reminded me why I should be paying more attention to math issues during middle school tours.All too often, middle schools offer an unfocused curriculum taught by unprepared educators who can’t help middle school kids make the transition from arithmetic to real mathematics, Schmidt’s study found.

Teachers in five other countries are more prepared to teach math than middle school teachers in the United States, the study says.Schmidt believes the existence of a coherent and challenging math curriculum should be a deciding factor for judging the quality of a middle school. Kids who don’t get the math they need will have trouble with math in high school and won’t get very far, he warns.

Any parent touring middle schools in New York City can quickly discern wide variation in the way math is taught. Some schools offer more and push students to learn high-level math, like the well regarded NEST+M, which offers a challenging program of Singapore math. Some middle schools provide Regents-level math and others don’t.

School of the Future offers a curriculum map for 7th grade, promising a linguistic/real life approach to mathematics.’’ One school I toured handed out a sheet noting that math is part of the 6th-grade curriculum; another simply said it offers “high-quality instruction, without further explanation.

It’s easy to get confused and skip the math questions if you don’t know what to ask.That’s one reason Schmidt has long pushed for specific content standards laying out what every child is expected to learn and know by every grade in mathematics. If such standards existed nationally, parents would know what to expect. The standards would inform teacher training in math, he says.

“It’s incumbent on education schools and on our society to deem math education important enough to have such standards,€™™ Schmidt told me during an interview about his study last week.

“It’s logical,’’ he explains. With clear standards, you would have the whole system organized instead of arbitrary and hit and miss. If you follow Schmidt’s logic, choosing a middle school with a particularly strong art or music program should not mean sacrificing math education. Each and every middle school would offer similar math curriculums with properly trained teachers.

Parents who want to know more about math requirements can consult the New York State math standards, which describe should be taught in each grade. That they are somewhat confusing to follow comes as no surprise to Schmidt.

“The problem is the standards are not very accessible to parents,’’ Schmidt says. “And they can be so full of jargon it’s difficult for parents to agitate for them.

School officials may tell you it’s really hard to find enough highly trained and math teachers, says Schmidt. “But your child shouldn’t have to suffer as a result.”

Parents, says Schmidt, should ask questions about math and demand answers.

It’s one small way to push for change.

Can we stop testing now, Chancellor Klein? New York rates the highest among all 50 states in a new Education Week report that looked at education funding, policy, and student achievement.

What’s that? “The state’s rating would have been even better without the lower student-achievement scores of New York City,” the Post reports the survey’s director as saying. Oh. Back to the bubble sheets.

Although the city’s schoolchildren aren’t heading back to their classrooms for another week, I’m back to work. I’m thinking there won’t be too much school-related news until 2008 — even the DOE wouldn’t roll out a new initiative between Christmas and New Year’s, right? — so for the next few days I’m planning to post about interesting articles and ideas that I just didn’t get to this fall.

First up: a recent article in the student newspaper of Stony Brook University about the state of high school science education in New York City. A Stony Brook researcher has been examining what kinds of science courses the city’s high schools offer; she found that more than half of high schools did not offer physics during the 2004-2005 school year (I would imagine that the percentage has gone down, given the proliferation since that time of small schools). The researcher also found that a lack of advanced science courses correlates with students’ socioeconomic status. Schools with higher proportions of poor and minority students are less likely to offer advanced science courses. On the one hand, this seems intuitive: we know that poor and minority students are more likely to receive inadequate math and science instruction before high school, making them ill prepared to take physics.

But reading articles like this one reminds me that the “soft bigotry of low expectations” is alive and well. An assistant principal at Townsend Harris, which has many advanced science courses, is quoted in the article as saying, “For many of the kids in other schools their goal isn’t physics. It’s to be able to count their change so they aren’t ripped off when they buy food or to be able to read their prescription so they can take care of themselves when they’re sick.” Those may be the horizons that poor students can see, but their teachers can see farther. Obviously, someone who can’t count change can’t pass the physics Regents exam — but shouldn’t that be the goal? Simply getting a kid ready to deal with the daily math he’ll face in the work world or in the first year of a basic college program is a major accomplishment in many places — but doesn’t that still sell the kid short?

After yesterday’s exhausting experiment in liveblogging, I’m going to take it a little easier today. But I do want to direct your attention to some important news: New York State has decided to turn down federal funding for abstinence-only sex education. Previously, the state received the second largest number of federal dollars for abstinence-only sex ed, which studies have shown to be ineffective. Many health advocates were pushing the state to abolish abstinence-only sex ed, even though it meant giving up federal funding. Because the state doesn’t actually require sex ed, this change won’t necessarily bring comprehensive sex ed to schools, but it does at least diminish the incentive for districts to misinform their students.

Last weekend’s City section in the Times featured New Yorkers who are 17. The Times feature includes oral histories from nearly a dozen teenagers. Some attend private schools and one dropped out of Dewitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, but many others talk about their public schools. A boy waxes ecstatic about Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment, where he notes “you get to go out into the field and study different types of plants and a lot of environmental stuff,” and a girl who goes to Talent Unlimited in Manhattan describes her packed extracurricular schedule. Other pieces take a look at kids’ college plans and their memories of Sept. 11.

I love getting a view into the personal lives of the kids who attend the city’s schools. They are always so much more interesting than a test could possibly show.

Have you taken a look at the puff pieces the DOE is running on its new site? Some of them are silly but others are pretty interesting. I don’t think the stories are archived anywhere, but the piece up right now is about the heads of the SchoolFood program showing off the “healthy, locally grown food” that school cafeterias are now serving. Schools are serving some fruits and vegetables grown in New York State, as well as yogurt produced in the state. Eating locally is better for the environment and can help kids establish healthy eating habits, so I hope kids are learning why canned corn has been replaced by “Confetti Corn Salad” on their styrofoam trays. Now if only the schools can figure out how to get rid of the environmentally unfriendly styrofoam altogether, as parents at PS 154 in Brooklyn are calling for.

Insideschools covered the planned improvements to school lunch program back in December 2005, when we also highlighted some of the best lunches around the city.

Columbia University’s Teachers College, with the support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, has developed a curriculum based on Spike Lee’s documentary “When the Levees Broke.” The curriculum, titled “Teaching the Levees,” is intended for students in high school and older and addresses many of the social and political issues raised by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. It also encourages “citizen action through further study, community service, service learning, and political action,” according to its website. I hope schools in New York and nationwide will be able to find space in their busy testing schedules for Teaching the Levees.

Two New York City schools that have already used Katrina as a tool for learning are featured in videos on the curriculum’s website. One video depicts Beacon School students’ trip to New Orleans to volunteer in rebuilding efforts there. Another shows a vibrant classroom discussion at a Brooklyn high school about the political implications of natural disasters.

TC is hosting a launch event Sept. 6 that will feature a panel discussion moderated by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert; you can RSVP through tomorrow.

After her staff called almost 100 phone numbers at district offices and received responses to fewer than half, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum released a report yesterday saying what many observers have long known: the DOE’s reorganization has left parents in the dark. “The start of the school year can be a stressful time for parents and students. The DOE makes matters worse by providing very little information and support,” Gotbaum said in a New York Post article.

Gotbaum has set up an education hotline for parents to find out information that district offices should be making available. Right now, the hotline is just getting started, but it should be fully up and running soon. Call 212-669-7250, and let Insideschools know what you find out!

As always, you can call also Advocates for Children’s helpline at 1-866-427-6033 with your education issues.

Yesterday, Newsday published an article entitled “Single-Sex School Aren’t the Educational Answer,” by Caryl Rivers and Rosalind C. Barnett, co-authors of a book on how gender myths are hurting our society. In the article, Rivers and Barnett explore the current media clash between those who think girls are favored in our schools and those who believe that boys are.

There has been a lot said about girls doing better in school thanks to (as New Republic puts it) a “verbally drenched curriculum,” designed to encourage girls to succeed. In my experience as a student, only recently (the end of junior year) have boys been able to catch up to girls academically.

However, as Rivers and Barnett point out, data has shown that boys are getting into colleges and getting bachelor’s degrees at ever-increasing rates. A recent US News article supports this side of the argument, noting that it is much harder for girls to gain admission to college than it is for boys due to overwhelming competition. When colleges try to maintain gender balance and have a larger female applicant pool, boys have it much easier.

With all of these gender issues some public school systems have been creating single-sex schools, something that Rivers and Barnett are very much against.

The evidence hardly suggests single-sex public schools are the answer. When you account for such factors as parents’ income, student motivation, teacher ability and class size, kids in co-ed class and kids in single-sex classes perform about the same. When California set up single-sex schools in the ’90s, it failed to improve academic performance. And, says the Ford Foundation, the schools tended to foster gender stereotypes, not helpful to either sex.

As a student, I cannot endorse this view. Sure, single-sex schools are not best for many students, but for some it is a very valuable option. I know that most of pro-single-sex-schools arguments were said a long time ago but for some students they are still true. Students of both genders can find members of the opposite sex distracting or pressure-causing in an academic setting. For them, a single-sex school can be much more relaxing and a better learning environment. Single-sex schools are not for everyone, but until the we have all the answers you need to keep all options open.

Insideschools must have started a trend with our recent article about dual language programs citywide — two daily newspapers have profiled the programs this week! Yesterday, the Daily News noted that Khalil Gibran will be “just 1 in 70” dual language programs (although it will not be dual language in its first year). Today, the New York Times takes a look at this fall’s influx of French dual-language programs, many of which were started with the help of the French Embassy and the organization Education Francaise a New York. Everyone agrees that it’s terrific when students achieve fluency in a second language, with one parent telling the Daily News that she turns heads at cocktail parties when she mentions that her son, a student at Amistad Dual Language School, speaks fluent Spanish.

A tri-partisan group of senators yesterday introduced the “All Students Can Achieve Act,” which aims to address some of the failures of the controversial No Child Left Behind act, up for renewal this fall. Chancellor Klein was at the press conference, along with the new Washington, D.C., schools superintendent, to support the legislation proposed by senators Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). The All Students Can Achieve Act focuses not just on test scores but on improving teacher quality, establishing voluntary national standards, and closing the achievement gap. You can read more about the proposed legislation in a press release on the senators’ websites; here it is on Landrieu’s.

The Times has an interesting article today about the future of abstinence education, in which kids are taught that only abstinence can protect against pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Although a recent study suggests that teens nationwide are increasingly abstaining from sex and practicing safe sex, there is no evidence to show that the money poured into abstinence education, a favorite of the Bush administration, is to credit. Texas, for example, has received the most abstinence education funds but has seen the smallest drop in teen sex rates. Last month, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted against the White House’s proposed increase in abstinence-only funds, signally that the initiative may be in danger.

In 2005, New York received $13 million in federal and state funds to support abstinence-only sex education, second only to Texas, and the state currently designates no money for comprehensive sex ed, which teaches about all forms of contraception and protection from disease. If you are concerned about the quality of sex education in New York’s schools, the Sex Ed Alliance of New York City is organizing a campaign this week to ask the DOE to improve sex ed programs here in the city. The alliance is asking concerned citizens to call 311 this week or to send a letter to the mayor, which you can do online through the New York Civil Liberties Union website.

Last week the Times ran a humorous piece about the books that schools assign as summer reading. The author, essayist Joe Queenan, thinks most books students are assigned are kitschy and insubstantial or ponderous and boring, and he’s skeptical that any of them help instill a love of reading in young people.

He writes:

Forty years after being pistol-whipped by Thomas Hardy, I am amazed that the summer reading list continues to exist. In a society that has dispensed with every other laudable cultural more, it bewilders me that students still allow adults to wreck their summer vacations by forcing them to feast on the passé cheekiness of “The Catcher in the Rye” or on mind-numbing kitsch like “The Alchemist.” I’m not saying it is necessarily a bad thing that schools require students to read books during the summer: culture, like vitamins, works best when imposed rather than selected. I am simply recording my amazement that in an age when urban high schools use weapons detectors to check for handguns, educators still make kids read “The Red Badge of Courage.”

Many high schools in the city require summer reading, and we’ve noticed mostly quality literature on reading lists. Unlike Queenan, we think kids can really benefit from reading “The Catcher in the Rye” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” (another object of his scorn). Of course, if kids don’t complete their assigned reading, it doesn’t really matter what is assigned.

What has been your family’s experience with summer reading? Have your kids had to do it? How much teeth-pulling did it take to get the pages read — or did the books sit around unopened all summer?